Has your skin suddenly turned into a dry, itchy mess? Ah, it must be wintertime. When the outdoor temperature drops and indoor heating cranks up, your skin is officially under assault. Chronic low humidity levels and wintertime habits such as long, hot baths can make your delicate dermis crack, peel, and itch -- not a pleasant feeling. Winter-stressed skin is also less effective at providing a barrier against infection -- severely dry skin can split and even bleed, creating tiny havens where bacteria can take hold. So what can you do to save your skin? Launch a counterattack.

Your Battleplan
One square inch of your skin is packed with about 100 oil glands. The oil they produce keeps your skin from losing moisture and makes it supple and soft. But every time you wash your skin, you strip away much of this oil, letting moisture evaporate and drying your skin. Your mission: remove less oil and moisture, and add extra oil and moisture as needed.

Creams, lotions, and oils protect your skin by trapping moisture in and sometimes by pulling moisture from the inner skin layer to the outerlayer. Skincare ingredients that prevent moisture loss include petrolatum, mineral oil, and lanolin. Ingredients that pull moisture to your outer skin layer include glycerin, propylene glycol, proteins, and certain vitamins. Check labels -- and remember, the higher up an ingredient is listed, the more of it the product contains.